TEMPLE OF RED

"Temple of Red" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian metal act Wetwork. The album was released through Musty Music Productions in 1998. After this album Wetwork would change musical style to a technical death metal style, but that's not at all what "Temple of Red" is about.

On this album we're presented to an adventurous mix of thrash metal, alternative metal and a couple of semi-progressive elements too. While there are heavier moments on the album, there are as many sections on the album featuring clean guitars. Those sections occasionally cast a nod towards goth rock acts like The Mission and the Sisters of Mercy. The vocalist has a voice and singing style that is so close to the voice and singing style of Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) that it's almost eerie and therefore a Megadeth mention is inevitable.

"Temple of Red" is a concept album featuring 14 tracks and a total playing time of 27:56 minutes. Half the tracks are shorter interludes with narration that explains the storyline, which features an anti-religion theme. While the story is as such rather banale and the narration occasionally sounds a bit forced, it's like the concept part of the album has grown on me the more I listen to the album. The relatively amaturish sound production brings my enthusiasm down again, but there is something charming about the album's atmosphere and the musicianship is decent too.

On many parameters "Temple of Red" is an imature and amaturish release and the fact that the band didn't continue down this musical path, is probably further proof, that they weren't very successful with the album. But I'll go against the grain here and say that I personally really enjoy the album. There's something about the dark atmosphere, and the adventurous approach to writing music that's refreshing and interesting. You can't really pin down what genre tags would be the right ones for "Temple of Red". For that it's too diverse. That's of course not a quality on it's own, but there's something irresistibly charming about the unique sound of the album that I greatly enjoy. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.